Pallets serve as an efficient means for storing and transporting goods, and are commonly used in many industries. For example, food products at a harvest site are typically packed into cartons which are loaded onto pallets and transported to a storage facility. Because the items packed onto a pallet must remain stable in transition, the height of the materials placed on such pallets is limited. If pallets are stored by simply placing them on the floor of the storage facility, the space above the pallet is wasted.
Accordingly, a variety of racking systems have been developed which provide vertical multi-level shelving of pallets in order to store large numbers of pallets in a space-efficient manner. Steady improvements in this field have produced new racking systems offering improved space management, customization for vehicle loading and/or loading of multiple pallets simultaneously, and structural support sufficient to meet the highest earthquake safety standards. Replacing an older pallet storage system with a new pallet racking system allows a business to reap these benefits.
However, many businesses have a substantial investment placed in their existing racking systems. Purchasing new materials to supplant an existing racking system may not be cost effective despite the benefits of an improved system. Further, environmental concerns dictate that simply discarding existing racking materials is wasteful.
Consequently, a need exists for a method by which businesses may take advantage of improvements to the art of racking systems without going to the expense of replacing their existing systems and without waste.